Abstract

This study investigated coexpression of CD28, CD45RA, and CD45RO on CD4+ and CD8+ cells in 107 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1-infected patients, who were followed-up prospectively and were not treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy, and 65 control subjects. The most important novel finding was that a 50% reduction in CD4+CD28+ cells predicted increased mortality (relative hazards [HR], 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0–2.6; P=.04), even after adjusting for the CD4+ cell counts, virus load, β2-microglobulin and hemoglobin levels, and HIV disease stage. Patients with progressed HIV infection had decreased concentrations of all studied cell subsets. Concerning the proportions of cells, only CD4+CD28+, CD4+CD45RA+, and CD8+CD45RO+ cells decreased with HIV progression. Low proportions of CD4+CD45RA+, CD8+CD45RA+, and CD8+CD45RO+ cells predicted mortality only in univariate but not in multivariate Cox analyses. If our results are confirmed in other studies, coexpression of CD28 on CD4+ cells may be a useful marker to evaluate HIV progression

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